We continued on to the little border town, and at one point you could see Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan at the same time. As we came to town, we kept going along the river that is the actual border between Iran and Azerbaijan until we reached the monastery of St. Stephanos (I'm not sure if that's Steven or not, but the sign said Stephanos...), which included a 16th-century church which was said to have been originally founded in the year 62 CE. The saint was martyred by being stoned to death. It was a very interesting church and monastery surrounded by beautiful red rock mountains. There were flowers in the courtyard and even a fresh water stream nearby.
We then went into the town of Julfa proper and saw the physical border check-point. We ate a delicious lunch of lamb neck, minced meat and chicken kebabs, and rice! So good!
We made our way back to Tabriz and had a little down time before dinner to pack up, as we have an early-morning flight tomorrow. At dinner, the local football (soccer) team had their dinner at the same restaurant. It was one of the player's birthdays and they had a huge cake for him. He ended up getting his face pushed into the cake, and it was hilarious. Even more funny, as they were serving up what was left of the cake and one of the players was eating his piece, another player asked him how the cake tasted, and he answered that it tasted a little bit like someone's face. They were a funny group.
Another great day, and tomorrow we will be flying to the second largest city of Iran, Mashhad! Can't wait to see what it's like there!!!
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